In Basque
it is called Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea (EAJ)
(literally meaning 'Basque party of friends of God and Old Laws', or Fuero) and in Spanish it is
called the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (PNV). In
Spain it is commonly referred to as PNV whereas
its French branch is the Parti
Nationaliste Basque (EAJ-PNB). The party typically refers to itself
as EAJ-PNV. The current chairman of EAJ-PNV is Iñigo Urkullu. The
youth wing of the Basque Nationalist Party is called EGI (Euzko Gaztedi
Indarra, Basque Youth Force).

In 1898, the party opened its second batzoki ("meeting
place", a club and bar) in Barakaldo.

The party was founded in 1895 by Sabino de Arana Goiri as a Catholicconservative, party
agitating for the restoration of self-government and the defense of the
"Basque race". Currently, it describes itself as Basque,
democratic, participatory, plural, and humanist. It is a moderate
nationalist party which favours greater autonomy, if not independence
itself, for the Basque nation. EAJ-PNV opposes political
violence.

In 1921, the Arana movement split into the moderate Comunión
Nacionalista Vasca ("Basque Nationalist Communion") and the
independentist Aberri ("Homeland").

During the single party dictatorship rule of general
Miguel Primo de Rivera, the
nationalist parties were outlawed and persecuted. However, its
activity continued under the guise of mountain
(mendigoizale) and folklore clubs.

At the end of 1930, Aberri and CNV reunited
under the old name of EAJ-PNV. However, a small group formed Acción
Nacionalista Vasca ("Basque Nationalist Action"). It was
on the moderate nationalist left, non-confessional and open to
alliances with the republican and socialist parties fighting
against the dictatorship.

The
Second Spanish Republic

1934-1935

The division between autonomism and independentism appeared
again during the second Spanish Republic. Headed
by Eli Gallastegi, a small group of radical independentists,
gathered around the weekly Jagi-Jagi and the Mountaineer
Federation of Biscay, left the party. They rejected the autonomy
that PNV was working for.

The Spanish civil
war and Franco's rule

After the coup d'état of 18 July 1936, the
party felt torn. It shared the rebel side's Catholicism and there
was pressure from the Vatican to keep away from the Republic, but
the promised autonomy and their anti-Fascism ideology led them to
side with the republican government:

The Biscayne and Guipuzcoan branches, the more important in
number, declared support for the Republic, Democracy and
anti-Fascism in the ensuing Spanish Civil War and were key in
balancing those provinces to the Republican side.

In the territory seized by the rebels, PNV members faced tough
times:

Some members of the Alavese and Navarrese committees, without
an official decision, published notes refusing support to the
Republic.

Some nationalists could flee to France or the Republican
area.

Some faced the rebel forces, ending in prison or shot.

Some joined the Carlist
battalions, either out of conviction or to avoid attacks.

The repression was focused on leftists, but nationalists were
also targeted. The party premises and press were closed in that
month of July.

Initially, the Defence Committees in Biscay and Guipuzcoa were
dominated by the Popular Front. Although with
enough difficulties, Basque autonomy was granted within the Second Spanish Republic and the
new Basque Government immediately organized the Basque Army, consisting of militias recruited by each of
the political organizations, including PNV.

José Antonio Aguirre,
the party leader, became in October 1936 the first lendakari (Basque president) of the
wartime multipartite Basque Government, ruling the
unconquered parts of Biscay and Guipuzcoa. When Bilbao, the most
populated town in the Basque Country, was taken by Franco's troops
the Basque nationalists decided to keep untouched all the heavy
industries of Bilbao, dedicated to iron and machinery, thinking
that they had the responsibility of securing the prosperity of
their people in the future. This decision made available to the
fascist rebels that important industry. In July 1937, having lost
all the Basque territory the Basque army retreated towards
Santander. Out of their land and without help from the Republic the
Basque Army surrendered to the Italian
Corpo Truppe
Volontari through the so-called Santoña
Agreement. The heads of the EAJ-PNV stayed with the soldiers to
follow their men's same fate. Prison and executions ordered by the
fascists followed. The 'Basque government in exile' then moved to
Barcelona until the fall of Catalonia and then out of Spain to the exile,
first to France where they
organized the camps and services with the president heading it
personally. He was in Belgium when Hitler occupied that country and so he
started a long travel to Berlin under a false identity.

Under the protection of a Panamanian ambassador, he got to reach
Sweden and dodging the SS German intelligence, he arrived to
Brazil and Uruguay, where his dignity was reinstated and given visa
to New York, where he established under the protection of
American-Basques as teacher of Columbia University.

When the United
States decided to back Franco in 1952 he went to France anew
where the Basque Government in exile was established. Also, he
learned there that the pro-NaziFrench government of Vichy confiscated the
Basque Government's building and that the anti-Nazi De Gaulle
maintained it as a Spanish Government's possession, given that the
Basque Government has never had any international consideration
other than representatives of a region in Spain at most. The
building today is the Instituto Cervantes premises where
French people can learn any of the Spanish languages, including
Basque. Anyway, the president of the Basque Government in exile was
always a PNV member and even the sole Spanish representative in the
United Nations
was the Basque appointee Jesús de Galíndez
until his murder in an obscure episode regarding his PhD Thesis
about Dominican Republic's dictator Trujillo. He also decided to
put the large Basque exiles' network at the service of the Allied side
and collaborated with the US Secretary of State and the CIA during the Cold War to fight Communism
in Spanish America.

In 1959 ETA was created by young
undergraduates from the area of Bilbao (organization EKIN) lured by
Basque nationalist ideology, but increasingly disgruntled at the
ineffective political action of the PNV, largely daunted by
after-war repression and scattered in exile. In addition, the new
generation resented an attempt of PNV to pull the strings of their
movement and PNV's youth wing Euzko Gaztedi (EGI), with whom they had
merged in the mid-50s, as well as showing a more modern stance,
stressing for one the language as the centre of
Basqueness, instead of race.

The split was particularly bitter given the fact that it was
headed by the lehendakari himself. Many PNV political bars
(batzoki, "meeting place") became alkartetxe
("mutual house").

Since 1991, as time has eased the bitter split (helped by the
fact that both Arzalluz and Garaikoetxea have gone into political
retirement), both parties agreed to form an electoral coalition in
a number of local elections as a means to maximalize the
nationalist votes, which eventually led to reunite both
candidatures in a joint list again for the regional governments of
Navarra and the Basque Autonomous Community in 1998. Thus, EA has
participated in several PNV-led Basque governments, including the
current one of President Juan José
Ibarretxe Markuartu. Still, EA decided to run by itself in the
municipal elections held in May 2007.

Until its election defeat in 2009, PNV dominated every
administration of the Basque
government. In Navarre, EA and PNV formed the coalition Nafarroa Bai along with Aralar and Batzarre. The PNV has one of
the twelve seats of Navarre Yes in the Parliament of Navarre.

Presidents
of the Basque Nationalist Party since 1895

Note: The National Council of the Basque Nationalist Party
(Euzkadi-Buru-Batzar) was created in 1911. Therefore,
Sabino Arana and Ángel Zabala were only presidents of the Regional
Council of Biscay (Bizkai-Buru-Batzar)

JeL

JeL (Jaungoikoa eta Lagi-zaŕa, "God
and the old law" in Basque, Lege-zaharra in
Standard Basque) is the motto of the party. The "old laws" referred
to are the fueros, the traditional laws of the Basque provinces, observed by the kings of
Castille, and later Spain, until the Carlist Wars. The motto of Basque Carlists
was Dios, patria, fueros, rey ("God, Country, Fueros,
king"). Separatist nationalism in parts of Spain is related in some
of these areas with former Carlist background.

JEL is the origin of jelkide ("JEL-companion", EAJ-PNV
member) and jeltzale ("JEL-follower", as in the gloss of
EAJ, Eusko Alderdi Jeltzalea).

Alderdi
Eguna

Alderdi Eguna ("Party Day") is the national holiday of the
Basque Nationalist Party which is annually celebrated on the last
Sunday of September, the Sunday closest to the feast day of Saint Michael, the patron saint of Euskal Herria and of the Basque Nationalist
Party.

The central act of this celebration is a political meeting of
leading nationalists, but the celebration begins in the morning
with a traditional festival in which the different municipal
organizations from the party set up stands to sell drinks and their
more typical products, all brightened up by traditional music.
Dances and traditional sports are also enjoyed. The celebration
takes place in an open air arena (currently in Foronda, Álava), and lasts until
nightfall.